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The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
On 3rd December 1312 Bishop John Hotham was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Around 20th June 1316 Bishop John Hotham was elected Bishop of Ely.
On 3rd October 1316 Bishop John Hotham was consecrated Bishop of Ely.
On 27th May 1317 Bishop John Hotham was appointed Lord High Treasurer.
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke [-1360]. A favourable wind drove the fleet, bound for the shores of England, into the port of Orwell on the Friday just before the feast of Saint Michael.1 There, the Earl Marshal2 and Henry, Earl of Leicester, along with a defiant multitude of barons and knights, came out to meet them. Nor were prelates lacking among those treacherously joined to the leaders against their own country and its prince. But the chief instigators of this most wicked crime, trained disciples of their mistress in arms and treachery, appeared at the appointed day: not as shepherds of sheep or lambs, but as armed wolves, cruel warriors, less like pastors than tyrants, and leaders of the vanguard of this impious host. There stood the two elder men from whom the Babylonian iniquity sprang forth, not against Susanna, but in favour of Jezebel: these, I say, were the priests of Baal, foster sons of Jezebel, namely the Bishops of Lincoln and Hereford. With them were also the Bishops of Dublin and Ely.3 Together with the queen, they had raised a great army.
Classem ad Anglie littora ventus directam votivus depulit in portum Horewille die Veneris proxima ante festum sancti Michaelis; cui se obvios confederaverunt comes Mariscalli et Henricus comes Leicestrie, et cum eiis baronum atque commilitonum proterva multitudo. Nec defue: runt prelati ducibus contra patriam et patrie principem infideliter commixti; set tanti facinoris machinatores sceleratissimi sue discipule, armis docte sceleris, obviaverunt ad diem expectatum; non quidem lanigerorum aut ovium, set luporum armigerorum crudelium, pastores minus quam tiranni horum falangis precipue ducatum prebuere. Ibi duo seniores a quibus egressa est iniquitas Babilonica contra Susannam, set pro Iezabele, hii, inquam, Baal sacerdotes, alumpni Iesabel, scilicet Lincolniensis et Herefordensis, cum iis quoque Dublinensis atque Heliensis, cum eadem regina magnum exercitum congregarunt.
Note 1. Friday before Michaelmas in 1326 fell on the 26th September but the queen landed on the 24th. Edward's order for the array of the eastern counties, in which he refers to the queen's landing, is dated 27th September. Rymer's Fœdera 2.643.
Note 2. Thomas of Brotherton, the king's brother, created earl of Norfolk in 1312, and earl marshal in 1316. Henry here styled earl of Leicester, was restored to his brother's forfeited earldoms of Lancaster and Leicester in 1324. He was the king's first cousin.
Note 3. Alexander Bicknor, archbishop of Dublin, 1317-1349. John Hotham, bishop of Ely (afterwards chancellor and treasurer), 1316-1337.
On 28th January 1327 Bishop John Hotham was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Around 14th January 1337 Bishop John Hotham died. He was buried in Ely Cathedral [Map].